Lowering the Drinking Age

Lowering the Drinking Age

The government says that a person should be twenty-one years old to consume an alcoholic beverage. The government also states that when you are eighteen years old, you are able to server alcoholic beverages to someone who is of age. As an eighteen year old you are permitted to do just about anything you desire, but you're forbidden to consume an alcoholic beverage. So the question that I ask is if it we consider you an adult at eighteen, then why are they not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages? Being eighteen comes with a whole heap of responsibilities. As an eighteen year old, he or she is allowed to purchase cigarettes, vote for government, join the military, make other major decisions, and they are no long able to be charged as a minor. Therefore they are seen as mature adults in the eyes of the legal system.

The problems that we see with drinking alcoholic beverages among eighteen is the same as we would see with someone who is forty years old. In a study from Middlebury College, states that the parents and community need to have an active role in alcohol education and being a role model. Being eighteen you can be just as responsible or irresponsible with alcohol beverages as anyone over the age of twenty-one. It is largely due to how he or she is raised and educated to the affects of alcohol. The United States has the highest legal drinking age in the world. Most countries allow people to drink at sixteen or eighteen years of age. Others, like China, Portugal, and Vietnam, have no minimum drinking age at all (www.Drugrehabtreatment.com). I think that if the parents allow their children to drink under the age of eighteen they will be more susceptible to parental supervision.

Everyone has read about the prohibition that was enforced in the late 1920s, early 1930s, there was such an outpour of resistance and defiance, but are we just repeating history? With the drinking age at twenty one we are prohibiting young adults to drink. The illegal nature of underage drinking the drinkers will usually take their operations underground, and by doing that they are putting themselves in danger due to the peer pressure. If the legal drinking age was lowered, it would be safely regulated and monitored by parents and the communities. We cannot refute the amount of underage drinking on college campus' nationwide. Many underage drinkers look at alcohol as